Rally, legal action: Congress plans to intensify fight against SIR

THe united states congress plans to organise a rebound against voter turnout chori (theft) at the Ramlila Maidan in dec to exhibit the “politicisation” of the Election Commission (EC) and will fight “politically, legally and organisationally” against this, party officials said after a meeting at the party’s headquarters on Tuesday.They added that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led union government is “attempting to weaponise the SIR process for vote chori.” A special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is underway in 12 states.At a meeting at Indira Bhawan , the party’s top brass met party leaders of the 12 states , as it prepares to take the issue to the people once again. Earlier, Lok Sabha’s Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi led a Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar for 15 days in August, targeting the alleged vote theft by the BJP through an SIR in the state. That issue found little traction in an election in which the Congress was reduced to six seats in the Bihar assembly, its worst showing in 15 years.The people cited above said it was Gandhi who on Tuesday promised that the Congress will “fight ‘vote chori’ politically, legally and organisationally”. They added that he also asked leaders from the 12 states to keep a close eye on the SIR process to ensure no eligible voter’s name is struck off.The leaders, who asked not to be named, also said that Gandhi claimed that the Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan of which it is a part in Bihar did not do badly in terms of vote share but lost the election due to vote theft. The alliance won 37.84% of the popular vote and 35 seats in the 243 member house.“He said that earlier in Haryana and Maharashtra too, the party fought well but lost due to vote chori,” said one of the people, a senior CWC member.After the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge lashed out at the Election Commission of India and the BJP.Kharge said in the meeting, “The Election Commission is working in a biased manner. Otherwise, there was no need to conduct SIR in Bihar ahead of the poll. It is the responsibility of the EC to ensure a genuine voter list. But it has become our responsibility.” He also told the state leaders to keep an eye on last minute inclusions in the voter list.“We held a comprehensive strategy review with AICC General Secretaries, AICC in-Charges, PCCs, CLPs, and AICC secretaries from the states/UTs where the SIR process is underway. The Congress Party is unequivocally committed to safeguarding the integrity of the electoral rolls. At a time when public confidence in democratic institutions is already strained, the Election Commission’s conduct during the SIR process has been deeply disappointing,” Kharge tweeted.EC did not respond to HT’s request for a comment.“It (EC) must immediately demonstrate that it is not operating under the BJP’s shadow and it remembers its Constitutional oath and allegiance to the people of India, not to any ruling party. We firmly believe that the BJP is attempting to weaponise the SIR process for Vote Chori. And if the EC chooses to look the other way, that failure is not just administrative—it becomes a complicity of silence. Our workers, BLOs, and district/city/block presidents will therefore remain relentlessly vigilant. We will expose every attempt, however subtle, to delete genuine voters or insert bogus ones. The Congress Party will not allow Democratic safeguards to be eroded by partisan misuse of institutions,” he added.The meeting at the Congress headquarters went for more than two hours. Later, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said, “Today, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi alerted the PCCs about this sinister attempt of the Election Commission. We are going to fight against these things. The motive of the Election Commission is to destroy democracy and opposition parties. In the first week of December, Congress will hold a massive rally on this issue (SIR) in Ramlila Maidan.”Congress’ media department chief Pawan Khera said that the rally, “will expose the Election Commission’s politicisation.”“Everyone’s experience is that people are being targeted in SIR and their names are being deleted. The same policy that the Election Commission followed in Bihar will be adopted in the remaining states. We have been raising questions about SIR since before the Bihar elections. We also organized a ‘Voter Rights Yatra’ in Bihar and informed the country that there are many irregularities in SIR,” he said.Reacting sharply, BJP national spokesperson Zafar Islam said, “Congress has been completely rejected by the people of Bihar. Instead of introspecting and assessing their humiliating defeat in Bihar, they are again trying to mislead people by raking up vote chori.”